A Gloomy Hope
by eternalstelena
Summary: After months of Elena acting out, her parents decide to send her to a boarding school. It is there where she meets Stefan, the seemingly perfect boy with an average group of friends. But not everything is as they seem.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is my new story! I've finished summer love and want to focus on another story, and whilst I was aiming to focus on paparazzi I decided that it's going to remain on hiatus for the time being. I love the story, I do, but I'm not really feeling it at the moment. I will return to it one day, but I'm either going to do a ton of editing to slow down the story or I'm just going to completely re write it. In my opinion, it moved way too fast and whilst I liked the idea of it, I think I needed to slow it down so the story doesn't seem too over the top.**

 **This is a Stelena story, which means I'll be focusing on them and their developing relationship, but this story is not what you think it's going to be. I won't spoil the plot, but if you expected a story like summer love you're in the wrong place. Like I said, it will focus on them, but the main plot for this story is going to be revealed in the later chapters.**

 **I hope you like this story, feel free to leave me a review and let me know what you think. Enjoy!**

Elena leaned her head against the window, mentally cursing at her parents. She briefly glanced at the scenery passing by her, but she saw the same thing she had been seeing for hours now. Fields. Just fields. They weren't pretty fields too, they were no meadows with long green grass that made you want to run around in them. No, they were just fields with what looked like brown grass. Elena already knew she was going to hate it here.

Elena had a bad few months, and her parents decided it was a good idea to give her a fresh start somewhere. Elena had been acting out, she had become bored of her suburban lifestyle and decided to start drinking and partying. She would throw the wildest parties to ever happen in her small town, and she truly became a known party legend in a short amount of time. It was fun, until one day her parents came home early from their work trip and caught Elena trashing their house during a party gone wild. They then decided to send her to a boarding school, in England. They say it's to give her a fresh start, but in Elena's mind it's just an excuse for them to not have to deal with her.

Elena didn't want to leave her brother behind, Hell she didn't want to leave anyone behind, but she wasn't given a choice. Her parents would no longer support her if she chose not to go, and because of this Elena wasn't planning on speaking to them. Not until they see sense and get her the hell out of here anyways.

They pulled into the school, and immediately Elena pulled her face into a grimace. This wasn't a school, it was a prison. It looked like a typical creepy boarding school, and Elena had no idea why her parents even thought she would be okay with coming here. It looked like it had some secrets, and Elena wasn't planning on staying long enough to find them out. She was either planning on getting sent home straight away, or becoming a good student so they'll send her back. She doesn't know which game plan she's going with yet, it all depends on what type of people are there.

The car pulled to a stop and Elena hesitated to get out. She didn't want to be here, she was already getting creepy vibes. Something in the back of Elena's mind was screaming at her to get the hell out of there before it's too late, she wanted to leave, badly. She sat for a few moments before her dad tapped on the car window, making her let out a huff and then open the car door. _Here we go_ , Elena thought.

"Come on Elena, wipe that frown off your face. It could be fun, and not many people can say they've been to a boarding school." Elena's dad spoke enthusiastically. Elena's dad was an optimist, and growing up Elena always loved that about him. But lately she's being seeing it as a bad thing, what's the point in going through life with a good mindset if everything is just bad? And this boarding school would most likely be the worst thing to happen to her, so in no way was she going to deal with his optimism right now.

"Well I guess they're the lucky ones." Elena snapped, not wanting to have this conversation right now. Her dad didn't reply, knowing it's best not too. Elena can become really mean during arguments, and she would say anything to spite you. Add jet lag to the mix and you've got one nasty teenager.

Elena allowed her parents to carry her many bags as she walked across the parking lot and into the school. The school looked just as creepy inside, it almost reminded her of Harry Potter, if Harry Potter was a horror movie. Elena tried to find any color in the building, but she couldn't find a single bright spot. It was all grey and black, and it was enough to bring your mood down even more than it already was.

She sat down on a bench just outside the reception, needing a moment to gather her thoughts. This was really going to be her home until the summer, unless she got sent home early, and summer was half a year away. She was screwed. She played around with the idea of making friends here, but then she decided she was going to stick with being a lone wolf. She didn't want to stay here long, so there was no point in making friends just to leave them all behind. Besides, everyone who goes to school here were probably creeps anyways. She didn't want to be friends with the creepy people.

"Elena, we need to go honey." Elena's mom spoke, pulling her out of her thoughts. Elena's mom and dad were workaholics, meaning they didn't even have the time to stay and tour the building with her. But it's fine, Elena had gotten used to it by now. At least, that's what she told herself.

"Okay, go then." Elena replied in a neutral tone. She hated being so cold towards her parents, but she hated being sent here more. They didn't even try to speak to her about the parties before sending her away, clearly in her mind they didn't care about her.

"We love you." Elena's mom spoke. In their eyes, they were doing a good thing. This could help Elena grow out of her rebellious ways and her parents would know that she had some stability in her life. They were rarely home, and now she would have people other than her brother to talk too. Once both of her parents realised she wasn't going to reply they sighed and exited the building, leaving Elena alone with a weird chill running down her spine. She just wanted to run to her parents and apologise, beg them to take her back, but her pride wouldn't let her do that. It was a few moments of idly sitting there before a middle aged woman came out of her office and started heading towards Elena.

"Are you Elena Gilbert?" The woman asked, making Elena lightly smile at her. She still needed to know what game plan to choose, so she had to be nice at first.

"Yeah." Elena replied. The woman looked nice, but Elena was never good at reading first impressions.

"Okay, I'm Miss Reelie, I'll be your mentor for the next few months. We can get into all that later, but for now let's place your bags in your room and I'll take you on a tour." She spoke in a neutral tone, neither warm or cold. Elena just nodded and begun to walk with her to her new room.

"Will I have my own room?" Elena asked. The one thing she needed, and craved, was privacy. She was a very private person, and she liked to keep her thoughts and feelings to herself. As well as her personal space.

"Oh no. No students are allowed their own room. You'll be sharing with a girl named Megan, she's a little shy but she's nice." Miss Reelie replied and Elena found herself screaming in her head. It was hard to have privacy when you had to share your space with someone.

"Ah, okay." Elena spoke. She decided that she should be nice to the teachers and staff, she had only met one of them but from the vibe she was giving out they seem like no nonsense type of people, so being a total bitch probably won't work in her favour, it wouldn't be effective and it would probably just make her time here even more horrible. She had to kill them with kindness until they sent her home.

"This is your room." Miss Reelie spoke as they entered a medium sized room. It was as creepy as the rest of the building, but it had a splash of red which made it feel more safe. It was big enough for 2 people to share, but not big enough for them to keep themselves to themselves. "Dinner is in 2 hours, so you're free to do whatever until then. Since you joined halfway through the school year I'll have to explain all the rules to you, but we can do that tomorrow and let you get settled in first." She added whilst Elena was still looking around.

"Okay." Elena replied, feeling a little overwhelmed. She placed her bags next to her on the floor, and began to inspect the room further. There was a door in their room, and she suspected that it lead to the bathroom.

"Welcome to Black Edge Academy, Elena Gilbert. I'll see you tomorrow." Miss Reelie spoke for the last time that day, and then walked away. Elena closed her door and threw herself down onto her bed. She should really start unpacking before her roommate arrived back, but for now she just needed a moment to take everything in. This wasn't a bad dream, this was really happening. She didn't want to be here at all, and she had already tried planning an escape route in her head. She needed out of here, she wanted to be back home where she could feel wild and throw parties.

Elena decided it was time to stop feeling sorry for herself, she can either spend the next few months hating every second of life or she can get over herself and be the strong person she knew she was. She had to put on a brave face, and that was something she was best at doing. She stood up and threw her bags down onto her bed, getting ready to unpack all of her stuff. She was a woman on a mission, and half an hour later she was finally done. Her side of the room looked more warm now, maybe if she spent all of her time here she could forget how cold the rest of the building was.

She still had over an hour until it was time for dinner, and she had no idea where her roommate was. She was bored out of her mind, and she had only been here half an hour. She pulled out her phone, in hopes of having signal here, but her hopes were quickly shattered. It was flickering in an out of service, but it wasn't in service long enough for her to actually use it.

Elena threw herself down onto the bed, wondering if she should maybe get back into reading, and then moments later the door opened revealing a girl who she assumed was her roommate. From first appearances, she looked quiet and shy, but also kind. She didn't notice Elena at first, but once she did she jumped slightly, not expecting someone to be here. She quickly recovered and smiled at Elena.

"Hi, you must be the new girl. I'm Megan, your roommate." She introduced and politely shook Elena's hand as she stood up.

"I'm Elena." Elena replied, continuing the hand shake.

"So, what made you move here in the middle of the school year?" Megan asked, completely diving into questioning. Although Elena expected this, it was February and not a lot of people transferred to a new school at this time, especially a boarding school.

"I kind of drifted from the person I used to be, so my parents sent me here as punishment." Elena admitted. She would never say this to her parents, or anyone back at Mystic Falls, but she hated the parties. Sure, they were fun whilst they were happening, but Elena wasn't the type of person to be a wild party queen. She liked going to parties, not hosting them. She was just incredibly lonely, and she had no true friends, the only way for Elena to feel connected to people was by partying. She used to be the type of person who knew who they were, she used to like herself, but as she grew up the idea of who she wanted to be changed drastically. She wanted friends, and the best way to do that was by hosting amazing parties. She wanted attention from her parents, and the only way they would give that to her was when they were scolding her. So she changed, and she didn't like the person she changed into too. The only person who truly still knew Elena was her brother, but even he didn't really like the 'new and improved' her.

"I get it, this isn't exactly the best place for your parents to send you but at least you have the chance to have a fresh start; you can reinvent yourself if you want too." Megan replied, and Elena had never thought about it like that. Maybe now Elena could be the type of person she had always wanted to be, or at least the person she used to be, or she could stick to her original plan and hate everyone here. But not Megan, she was too nice to hate.

"You don't like it here either?" Elena asked, ignoring the part about a fresh start. She wasn't staying here long enough to even have a fresh start. She could scrap that idea, even if it was a nice idea.

"Have you seen this place? It's creepy, and a lot of people here are assholes." Megan explained and Elena found herself becoming intrigued. She wanted to know all about the people she was going to be staying with.

"What are they like?" Elena asked.

"You'd think that because we're at a creepy boarding school the people would act different, but no. It's exactly like a normal high school. You have your populars, your wannabe jocks, your nerds and the people just trying to get by." Megan explained. Elena didn't think a boarding school would be like that, but she had never experienced a boarding school before.

"What category do you fall under?" Elena questioned.

"Probably somewhere in the middle of the nerds and the people trying to get by." Megan replied. She didn't exactly get bullied, but sometimes they'd be a popular person waiting to comment on her 'dorky' glasses or her 'nerdy' outfit.

"Yeah well, those people and their stupid cliches can suck it." Elena spoke, making Megan laugh. Elena decided that she liked Megan, and she would stick to only being friends with Megan. If everyone here was as cliche as Megan said they were, Elena didn't want anything to do with them. These last few months she had been a walking, talking cliche, and she didn't want to do it anymore.

"We have about an hour until dinner, do you want me to show you around until then?" Megan asked.

"Yeah, okay." Elena replied. She hadn't been on a tour, for some reason Miss Reelie took off before she gave her one, so she really did need to know where everything was. She couldn't be late to classes on her first day just because she couldn't find it, that wouldn't exactly be a great first impression.

"Well let's go then." Megan smiled. They walked out into the corridor and unlike earlier, it was crowded with people. Elena didn't have enough time to look at all the people before Megan was dragging her off somewhere. She showed her all of the classes she needed to know, and a few of the hangout areas, before they were walking to the library which was the last stop on her tour.

"This library is really old, but it's more like beautiful old and not creepy old if you get me." Megan explained. Megan was the type of person who was shy when you first met her, but then soon came out of her shell, and Elena liked that about her.

"Well I'm excited to see it." Elena replied. Suddenly she was colliding into someone's strong, hard, chest and if it wasn't for their arms going around her she probably would have gone flying down onto the floor. Elena took a second to recover from almost being winded and looked up to see the most beautiful green eyes she had ever seen. How could a boy this beautiful go to a place so haunting?

"Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." He spoke, and his voice was rough yet soothing. Elena was lost in the sight of him, until she snapped out of it and realised how embarrassing she must have looked.

"It's fine." Elena replied, running her hands through her hair.

"Elena, we need to get there before it's time for dinner." Megan spoke, making them both break their eye contact.

"I'll see you around?" The boy asked but Elena just half smiled at him and walked next to Megan. Who the hell was he?

"Who was that?" Elena asked as soon as he was no longer in sight.

"Stefan Salvatore, he's one of the popular kids." Megan explained. "Do you like him?" Megan asked and Elena looked at her.

"I just met him." She replied with a confused expression on her face.

"Just remember, he's part of the popular gang." Megan warned and Elena found herself becoming confused. She was talking about these popular people like they were world known criminals, were they really that bad?

"I know." Elena replied, still feeling a little confused.

"Come on, let's go to dinner. The library will still be there tomorrow." Megan spoke.

Elena and Megan walked into the cafeteria and Elena immediately scrunched her face up. They were plastic tables and seats all connected together, and she couldn't fully tell but the food looked disgusting. Screw how nice Megan was, she wanted out of this place. Now.

They walked over to the food and Elena was right, it is disgusting. Half of it looked like mush and the other half looked stale, none of it looked very appetising. Elena grabbed some bread that looked okay and they sat down on a table.

"So, how do you like it here so far?" Megan asked Elena as they started to eat.

"Honestly, I hate it here." Elena replied.

"Me too. That's why I spend all my time in the library, it's the only place in here that actually feels safe to me." Megan told her. Elena was about to reply but got cut off by a guys voice before she had the chance.

"Hey Megan, wow you've finally found a friend to sit with you. I never thought I would see the day." The guys booming voice spoke, and a few people around the food hall laughed. Elena scanned over all the people in the group, and decided she didn't like any of them. They were 2 males other than the guy who spoke, one of them included Stefan and she couldn't understand why she felt let down by the fact he would allow his friend to say this. They were 2 females, and one was clinging onto the guys arm. Elena looked at Megan, waiting to defend herself, but she didn't. So Elena decided to step in.

"Do you bully girls to feel better about your own pathetic life? Because that's just sad." Elena replied and Megan smiled at her thankfully.

"And who might you be?" The guy asked, looking Elena up and down.

"Megan's friend, and you don't fuck with her anymore, got it small brain?" Elena raised her eyebrows at him. She could feel everyone's eyes on her, but she didn't care. She's never liked bullies.

"We'll see about that." He replied, looking her up and down one last time before walking away.

"Thank you Elena." Megan spoke and Elena smiled at her.

"It's no problem, you've got a friend to defend you now." Elena told her and Megan smiled brightly.

"We should go back to our room, we have classes tomorrow." Megan replied and Elena nodded.

Elena didn't know what to expect from this school, but she knew it was going to be one hell of an experience.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Here's another quick update! I want to know what you all think so far, and do you have any guesses on what the story is going to be about? I'm super excited to write this story so I would appreciate if you would leave a review and let me know what you think.**

Elena groaned as she heard the sound of the obnoxious school alarm ringing. Did that really have to be a thing? Apparently her classes started at 7:30am, which was a big difference from her old schools 9am start. She groaned as she rolled over, moving the pillow from underneath her head so she could position it in a way that could cover her ears. She heard Megan start to get ready for the day, and just those sounds alone were enough to annoy her.

"Come on Elena, we need to eat breakfast." Megan encouraged and Elena groaned louder. Apparently Elena was Megan's first friend since childhood, and that meant she had to stay awake until 2am talking about everything that came to mind. At first it was fun, but it got to a point where all Elena wanted to do was sleep.

"I'll skip it." Elena told her, wanting to get half an hours more sleep. She wouldn't be able to survive today if she didn't have a good nights sleep in her.

"You'll be starving if you do, you didn't eat much last night." Megan spoke, and Elena groaned even louder knowing that she would have to eat that disgusting cafeteria food, she needed to find a place where she could eat some real food. And fast, before she dies from starvation.

Elena opened one of her eyes, to see Megan looking down at her with an unimpressed face. She decided to roll out of her bed and into the bathroom, knowing that she would have to wake up either way. She couldn't miss first day of classes, that wouldn't be a good start to her reputation. She showered as quick as humanly possible and got dressed into the school uniform. When Elena found out she had to wear a uniform she was initially annoyed, but once she put it on she was impressed. The short black skirt and white shirt, matched with a black blazer, looked really good on her.

About 10 minutes later, she was ready to go. Megan didn't stop talking on the way to the food hall and it took Elena a lot of willpower not to scream, but she couldn't already snap at the first friend she made. They walked into the food hall and for some reason unknown to Elena, her eyes darted towards the table Stefan sat at yesterday. There he was, looking like he just stepped out of a modelling catalogue. The uniform looked really good on him, and Elena hated how he was so perfect. He was talking to some blonde girl about something and he had a wide smile on his face, and for some reason that was an nice sight for Elena. His eyes looked over towards her, and she quickly looked away and walked over to the food line.

The breakfast choices were a little bit better than the dinner choices, but still disgusting nonetheless. Once again, she looked over towards Stefan's table and saw that all of that group was eating some nice food.

"Where do they get their food from?" Elena asked as she dumped a pile of mush onto her plate.

"Stefan has a brother who kinda volunteers here, since he's a member of staff he can basically do what he wants, and he always make sure Stefan has some good food." Megan informed.

"Well what about us? Can't we go out to get some food?" Elena asked, she couldn't survive on this mush.

"We can go out on the weekends, but the food wouldn't stay fresh since we're not allowed our own fridge." Megan told her.

"How does their food stay fresh?" Elena questioned.

"Stefan's brother put a fridge into his room, one big enough to fit enough food for him and his friends." Megan explained and Elena pouted as they sat down onto an empty table.

"But that's not fair." Elena whined, pushing her burnt bacon around the plate. All Elena wanted was a nice bowl of blueberry oatmeal and a strawberry smoothie, not some burnt bacon and stale bread.

"Yeah, well, it's just another advantage of being an insanely stuck up popular who doesn't even have to work for anything they want." Megan snapped, making Elena looked at her with surprise. She didn't know why she felt like this, but something in her was unsettled when she heard Megan talking about Stefan like that.

"Can I ask you something?" Elena asked hesitantly, not wanting to offend her only friend.

"Sure." Megan replied.

"You talk about them with so much hate. I know they're mean to you but is there another reason why?" Elena asked. She wanted to get a feel of the people she was staying with.

"It's just. No one wants to be at this place, it's creepy and it's extremely unwelcoming, so I don't understand why they would go out of their ways to make someone's time here even harder." Megan explained, and Elena understood that. But she didn't understand why anyone would bully.

"I get you. But I'm not gonna let them speak to you like that anymore, and we can escape to the library whenever we need too." Elena replied, making Megan smile. For the third time, she looked over towards Stefan and found him staring at her, and she quickly looked back towards her plate. She felt a blush creeping up her cheeks which confused her, Elena Gilbert doesn't blush just because a guy gave her his attention. She told herself she needed to stop looking over at Stefan, clearly he was an ass, or friends with an ass at least, and she didn't need to be around people like that as she was trying to keep a low profile. He stood by and let someone get bullied, and that was a big no in Elena's book. And besides, she wasn't staying here long enough to even make friends, never mind getting romantically involved with somebody.

"What class do you have first?" Megan asked, changing their conversation topic to something a little more light hearted.

"Uhh, history." Elena told her, scrambling to find her class schedule. She didn't have chance to learn it yet, so she didn't want to accidentally walk into the wrong classroom.

"Oh, I have math but do you need me to walk to the classroom?" Megan asked, not wanting Elena to get lost on her first day.

"No I think I remember where it was." Elena replied. She just needed to find the creepy statue of the meerkat and then turn left and her classroom was down that hall. Easy enough to remember.

"Okay, well I need to get going, I'll see you at lunch." Megan smiled and then stood up and headed towards the door. Elena sat there for a few more moments, before deciding it was probably best that she too headed towards her classroom. She slung her bag filled with pens and notebooks over her shoulder and walked out the door, on a mission to find the classroom.

About 20 minutes later, she had finally found the classroom and she was only just not late. Apparently finding all these classrooms wasn't going to be as easy as she thought. She walked into the classroom and the first person she spotted was Stefan, and then she saw the rest of his group. Great. She looked around the classroom and realised the only seat left was the one right next to Stefan, even better.

She sighed as she walked over to the seat, feeling his eyes on her as she sat down. She glanced over towards him and for a brief second they made eye contact, but she quickly looked away, not liking how intense she felt. She busied herself with getting her notebooks out of her bag, and refused to let herself look at him again.

A few seconds after she sat down the teacher walked in, he just looked like a normal teacher would, and placed his bag down on the table. He looked around the room, before finally laid eyes on Elena and gave her a knowing smile.

"Good morning class, it appears we have a new student today." He spoke, and Elena wanted to roll her eyes. She wanted to sarcastically reply and tell him everyone knows she's knew, but she bit her tongue. She didn't want to be a bitch here. "Why don't you tell us your name?" He asked, and Elena cringed.

"Elena." She spoke, not liking the fact that everyone's eyes were on her right now. She never liked having everyone's attention, unless she was drunk and lonely.

"Well Elena, I hope you'll enjoy your time here." He spoke. Elena just nodded and smiled, which he returned. He started speaking about whatever he was teaching today, and Elena realised she had already learnt this at her old school so she used the time to tune into Stefan's voice. She could hear him speaking to the douche who insulted Megan yesterday, but she couldn't hear what he was saying. He had a really nice voice, and she couldn't help but keep listening. He would randomly laugh at times, making the teacher shush him, and Elena thought it was the best laugh she had ever heard.

Her thoughts were disrupted by the classroom suddenly getting louder. She looked around and realised that she was too focused to notice everyone had moved. She was confused for a second until the teacher walked over to her desk.

"Hey Elena, we started a group project a couple of lessons back so I'll have to add you into someone else's group." The teacher explained.

"Okay." Elena replied. The teacher looked around the room, deciding which group to put Elena in. Once he had made his decision he turned back around to face her.

"You can join Stefan's group." He told her, pointing towards him just in case Elena didn't know who he was. Elena was screaming inside her head, why did she have to get put with the populars. She began to protest, only to realise she didn't want to be the bitchy popular girl anymore and defying a teachers orders would make her be just that. So instead she just nodded, stood up, and headed over towards them on her high horse.

She stopped once she reached them, making them all pause their conversation to look up at her. The two girls looked up at her with the blank expression, but all the guys were smirking at her. Stefan's smirk was more like a half smile, but the two other guys just looked damn right smug. She wanted to slap the smirks off the faces, but she kept her hand placed on the strap of her bag.

"I have to work with you guys." Elena told them, feeling extremely awkward. Why, oh why, did she have to get placed in this group. Clearly the big guy in the sky hated her, that was the only reason she could think of.

"Well if it isn't Megan's little friend." The guy who bullied Megan yesterday spoke.

"Tyler, drop it." One of the girls warned. Tyler, sounded about right, a douche name for a douche guy.

"Well if it isn't the douche." Elena replied in a fiery tone, hoping to shut him down, but instead it just made him smirk even more.

"You know, I don't know why you would want to be friends with a nerd like Megan when you could be friends with us." Tyler spoke, making the other girl to hit him in the arm. Why don't they just speak out against him?

"I would rather die a slow and painful death." Elena smiled at him, and she heard the other guy laugh like a maniac which caused her to roll her eyes. These guys were a total cliche. She sat down next to Stefan, suddenly hating her chosen seat when she realised how much his proximity impacted her. He looked down at her and smiled, and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't break the eye contact.

"You've got fire." Tyler spoke, meaning Elena break her eye contact with Stefan.

"Just tell me what I have to do and don't talk to me." Elena snapped, not wanting to be around a bully like him. Thankfully for her, he did stop talking and one of the girls brought her up to speed with what she had to do.

Elena was silent for a while as the group around her spoke about whatever popular people spoke about. No one tried to speak to her, which was a good thing. They probably had realised by now she had no intentions of speaking to them, and it's going to remain that way for the rest of her time here. Unfortunately for her, Stefan wasn't caught up with her intentions.

"How do you like it here so far?" Stefan asked, quiet enough so that only Elena could hear him.

"It's okay." Elena spoke. "I would like it a lot better if you didn't speak to me though." She added, making Stefan let out a quiet laugh.

"You're a princess aren't you?" He spoke sarcastically, which made Elena reply with a sarcastic smile. "How come you moved here halfway through the school year?" He asked, making Elena turn her head so she could make eye contact with him.

"What's up with all these questions?" Elena asked, feeling slightly irritated. Her plan was to keep her guard up around him, and that was hard for her to do when she felt herself wanting to answer his questions. She hated how she had not him for not even a day, and she already wanted to be around him. She was acting like a teenager out of a cheesy romance novel right now, and she didn't like it at all.

"I just want to get to know you, that's all." Stefan told her. She should have said no, that he let someone bully her friend and that wasn't okay by her. She should have told him to leave her the hell alone, but instead she said.

"My parents sent me here to try and teach me a lesson I guess." She replied, answering his earlier question.

"Why would they need to teach you a lesson?" He asked.

"I was a bit of a party girl I guess." She answered, hating the fact that she's actually speaking to him. He was nice company though.

"Really? You don't seem like that type of girl." He spoke, making Elena mad.

"Why? Because I'm friends with a nerd." She replied, crossing her arms together.

"No, just because you seem better than someone who gets drunk every weekend." He answered honestly, making Elena speechless. "And just for the record, I don't agree with Tyler's vendetta against Megan." He admitted.

"So why do you stand by and let it happen?" She asked.

"Because you don't want to go against Tyler." Stefan spoke, lowering his voice just in case he was listening in.

"Why? Because he has the power to make you less popular." Elena taunted.

"No, I don't care about that. Tyler is someone who's very bored at this school, and you don't want to go against someone who's bored and has the time to try make your life hell." Stefan replied, but Elena just scoffed. What could some dumb wannabe jock do to ruin anyone's life?

"What's he gonna do, murder me?" Elena joked, lightly laughing at herself.

"I'm just saying, it's better to just keep your head down at this school." He almost warned, which made Elena curious. Before she had the chance to answer, the bell rang, making Elena jump up and run out of the classroom as fast as she could. Her plan was to keep Stefan out, she had only been here a day and she had already failed. How was she going to survive these next few months.

Her next few classes went by pretty quick and it was now lunchtime. Elena was disappointed to find out she didn't have any classes with Megan, but she'll be able to see her at lunch. She walked into the cafeteria and saw Megan sat at a table, who quickly waved her over as soon as she saw Elena.

"Hey Elena! How was your day?" Megan asked. Elena sat straight down, deciding she can give lunch a miss for today. She didn't need to eat anymore of that horrible cafeteria food.

"It was pretty good, expect for history." Elena groaned, thinking about her time with Stefan. It was good, and that's what made her hate it. She liked being around Stefan, and she wasn't supposed to like it.

"What happened in history?" Megan asked, taking a bite out of her macaroni.

"We're doing group projects and I got paired with Stefan's group." Elena told her.

"Oh, so how did it go?" Megan asked, feeling insecure as she pushed food around her plate.

"It was fine. Tyler said a few things, and Stefan was just Stefan, but the girls seem okay." Elena spoke. She wondered why all of them hung out with Tyler, they didn't seem like the type to hang out with a guy like that.

"What did he say?" Megan asked, and Elena debated on if she should tell her the nasty things he said about her.

"Just trying to rile me up." Elena replied, deciding it was best not to tell her.

"Is something happening between you and Stefan?" Megan asked suddenly, and if Elena was eating food she would have choked on it. Where the hell did that question come from?

"No, why would you think that?" Elena asked. She had only been here a day, that wasn't even enough time for anything to happen.

"I'm just checking you're not making a mistake." Megan told her, which made Elena frown. Why would she be making a mistake with Stefan? And not that she wanted too, but why would Megan try and stop her?

Out of the corner of her eye Elena saw someone walking into the cafeteria, someone she had never seen before. He was tall, dark and mysterious. Kind of what you would expect a typical bad boy to look like. Whilst he was attractive, he definitely looked older than a student which made her believe he was a member of staff. He walked over towards Stefan, handed him a bag, patted him on the shoulder and then sat with the other members of staff.

"Who is that?" Elena asked, and Megan's eyes followed to where Elena was looking.

"That's Damon, Stefan's brother." Megan told her. Elena was shocked, their parents must have some really good genes considering how attractive the brothers were. Someone needed to thank them. Her eyes darted over back towards Stefan, and she saw him pulling some food out of the bag Damon gave him. Suddenly she became annoyed again, and remembered that no matter how attractive he was she couldn't get involved with him. He let her friend get bullied. And he has good food.

"Do you wanna check out the library tonight?" Elena asked, changing the subject. She couldn't think about the Salvatore's for a second longer, otherwise she might go insane.

"Sure, I need to do some studying anyways so I'll meet you there after class?" Megan suggested and Elena nodded, they both stood up and headed towards their afternoon classes. Elena turned back to look at Stefan one more time, before walking out of the cafeteria and pushing him from her mind.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update, and I'm even sorrier to say that's how most of these updates are going to go. This story is very different, and it's one that I want to take my time working on so I make sure I have time to think of the best ideas. I feel like if I rush writing just to get frequent and regular updates, this story will not reach its full potential. So I'm sorry, but it will be worth the wait.**

 **The second thing is, I feel like I should probably give you a warning before you continue reading. _This is not going to be a happy ending story._ That doesn't mean Stefan and Elena are not going to be happy, or even that their ending is going to be bad, but there's going to be no happy epilogues. I want to keep this book open for a sequel too, so there's that. If you do want a happy ending kind of story let me know and I'll publish another story I've been working on.**

 **As always, leave me a review and enjoy!**

Elena sighed as she headed towards the library. Her first day of classes had been exhausting, she almost forgot what it felt like to put effort into school. Back at Mystic Falls, she never even tried to do good in her classes. She was smart, incredibly smart actually, but she used her time in class to plan some big party. Now that she was here and felt what it was like to be working again, all she wanted to do was go to sleep. But she had promised Megan she would study with her, so that was her current destination.

It took her about 10 minutes to find the library, but once she did she almost gasped at the sight in front of her. The library was nothing like the rest of the building, it was beautiful. It was old, but that just added to the idea of it. It looked like somebody had pulled the library from the beauty and the beast movie out and placed it into here. It was almost a shame really, that a room so beautiful was in such an ugly place.

She spotted Megan in the corner, with her head down in a book, and walked over towards her. They weren't a lot of people in this library, and Elena understood why this was Megan's safe place. No populars would ever set foot in here, meaning she had a place just to feel relaxed and happy.

"Hey." Elena spoke, making Megan look up from the textbook she was engrossed in.

"Hey Elena, I was just studying biology." Megan told her whilst closing her book. Elena sat down opposite her, and placed her bag down onto the floor. "How was the rest of your day?" Megan asked.

"It was good, a little tiring and long, but good overall." Elena replied to Megan, who just responded with a smile. "I can see why you love this place." Elena commented, her eyes still looking around the building.

"Yeah, it's the only place in the school that you actually want to spend time in. And it's usually empty, meaning I have the place to myself." Megan told her, and quickly threw herself back into her book. Elena quickly realised she would probably never see Megan without a book in her hands, someone would have to kill her before she would allow that. Elena decided she should start studying herself, even though she would rather do anything else, it wouldn't make sense for her to be in a library and not do any studying.

Both Elena and Megan were studying for a few moments, before they heard the door to the library. The door was so old that when it opened, it made the loudest sound known to man. Elena jumped when she heard the loud creaking noise, but she quickly calmed herself. Both Elena's and Megan's heads snapped towards the door, knowing that the library doesn't get much visitors. They saw Stefan walking through the door, and Elena couldn't stop help but feel happy and annoyed to see him.

"You've got to be kidding me." Megan grumbled, making Elena look back at her. She looked angry, extremely angry, and Elena could probably guess why. A popular kid was coming into the library, her safe space. Stefan walked over to Elena, and Megan stood up to leave.

"Megan, where are you going?" Elena asked.

"Are you serious?" Megan replied, which made Elena look at her with confusion written all over her face. "It's been a day since you've been here and already one of the popular people has invaded my space, so thanks Elena." Megan spat and then walked off, Stefan sat next to Elena, who was feeling pretty confused and angry. She could understood why Megan would be angry, but it wasn't her fault. She didn't exactly ask Stefan to be here.

"What was that about?" Stefan asked, making Elena glare at him.

"Why are you here Stefan?" Elena replied. She knew it wasn't her fault that Stefan came in here, but she couldn't help but feel guilty. She didn't want her first, and only, friend to hate her.

"Oh, I wanted to ask you to come get some food with me." Stefan told her, making Elena's expression soften, just a little. Only a little.

"What, like a date?" Elena sniggered, not intending to go on a date with him.

"If that's what you wanna see it as then yeah." Stefan replied, making Elena scoff and begin to stand up. There was no way in hell she was going on a date with him, she didn't be shipped off here just to fall back into her old bad habits. He put his hand on her arm, stopping her from leaving. "What's worse? Going on a date with me or eating mushy cafeteria food." Stefan spoke, which made her huff. He didn't fight fair. She was starving, and she knew he would have some good food.

"Fine, but this is not a date. This is me being starved for a day." Elena told him and Stefan smiled in a way that said 'I won' but at the same time it wasn't smug, it was playful.

"Not a date, I got it." Stefan smiled at her, and Elena couldn't stop herself from returning it.

"So what, are you going to make me sit with the populars and share ways to bully nerds." Elena sarcastically spoke, making Stefan let out of quiet laugh.

"No, I was just thinking we can go back to my room and have ourselves a little feast." Stefan replied, and Elena felt herself becoming nervous. She was going to be in Stefan's room with him, alone. Hopefully she would be able to have some self control. Even though she didn't particularly like him, he was too beautiful to resist.

"Okay." Elena replied.

"Come on, I'll take you there." Stefan spoke, and Elena had a feeling he would end up taking her to a lot of places.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Elena didn't know what to expect when she entered Stefan's room, but what she saw was a surprise indeed. She expected his room to be full of soccer trophies or jerseys, anything that looked close to a typical jocks room. She didn't know why she thought this, maybe because of his popularity status, but instead what she saw was books. Hundreds and hundreds of books, she would even go as far to say 1000's.

"Wow, it's like a miniature library in here." Elena spoke as she continued to look around. His walls were the color of muddy bronze, and Elena didn't like that. Apart from the book collection, his room looked too much like the rest of the school. He needed some bright colors in here.

"Yeah, there's not much to do here apart from read." Stefan replied, and Elena found herself becoming even more curious about him. When she bumped into yesterday she thought he was a beautiful boy, but then she learned who his friends were and took an immediate disliking to him. But he kept surprising her, first in History and now here. He didn't seem like the type of person she thought he was, and Elena didn't know if that was a good or bad thing.

"Are all of these books yours?" Elena asked as she ran her finger along the books, curious in him and them.

"Half of them are, half of them belong to the library." Stefan told her, watching Elena as she bent down to look at even more of the books.

"How do you get the ones that are yours back home? I'm taking a wild guess here and saying that they probably wouldn't fit in your suitcase." Elena spoke, standing back up and turning to face him. She didn't realise all of his attention had been on her, and now she was a little embarrassed.

"I just ship them back to my house." Stefan replied. Elena found herself wanting to ask so many more questions, she wanted to know more about him, but her stomach spoke before she could. Her cheeks turned red, embarrassed at the loud grumbling noise, but Stefan just smiled and walked over to his fridge. "So without a chef and an oven, we're pretty stumped for options. But I thought we could just settle with a nice chicken salad, the chicken ready done of course." Stefan suggested and then pulled out 2 salads already made.

Elena nodded, but then began to speak. "What, was you expecting company?" Elena teased, referring to the 2 already made salads.

Elena didn't know if she was imagining it, but she swore Stefan's cheeks turned red. "No." He denied. "I just like having meals in there, in case I don't feel like eating in the cafeteria." Stefan spoke as he handed Elena a salad and sat down on his bed. He patted the side of him, signalling Elena over, which made her confused.

"You wanna eat food, in bed?" Elena asked with a raised eyebrow, what if they accidentally made a mess everywhere. Or what if she accidentally rolled around in his bed with him.

"Sure, why not. What's the point of eating in your room if you're just going to sit at a table anyways." He replied, and Elena saw his point. So, hesitantly, she sat down next to him and started eating her salad, ignoring his eyes on her.

"It's not fair that your room is so big, mine is tiny." Elena complained, looking around his room.

"I'm sure your room isn't that bad, Megan can read algebra to you whilst you speak." Stefan joked, making Elena glare at him.

"You need to leave her alone, she isn't a bad person she just really likes studying." Elena defended.

"I know, I'm just messing with you." Stefan replied, he was silent for a second before he continued. "I don't think I could ever be friends with someone like Megan though." He spoke, making Elena look curiously at him.

"Why not?" She asked.

"It's not because I think she's a bad person, or because I'm a 'popular guy who doesn't like nerds' before you say anything, I just think there's more to life than reading books." He replied, making Elena look at him weirdly before pointing to all the books in his room. "Point taken." He laughed. "But if I was at a normal school, and had a normal home to go to when classes were finished, I wouldn't read this much. I would go and live my life, and I think everybody else should too." Stefan spoke, making Elena think for a while.

"I agree in a way, but at the same time you need to look at it from her side. You use reading as a way to escape, so does she. She hates this place, probably more than anyone, and maybe if she wasn't here she would also be out there living her life." Elena defended, and Stefan nodded in agreement.

"I get it, I need to stop giving my opinion on people before I know them." Stefan spoke, making Elena smile.

"Maybe just a little." She replied. They ate in silence for a while, before Stefan finally broke it.

"So Elena, what do you want to know about me?" Stefan asked and Elena looked at him in confusion.

"Who said I wanted to know anything about you?" She replied defensively, putting her now finished salad on the table next to her and crossing her arms.

"Oh come on princess, I saw your face when you walked in here. You wanted to ask a bunch of questions." He spoke all knowingly, and now Elena felt even more defensive.

"First of all, I only wanted to know about your little library. Second of all, stop calling me that." She demanded, letting out an annoyed huff once she finished talking.

"You don't have to lie to me Elena. And what, princess?" He asked and she nodded. "But you are a princess, so I'm going to keep the nickname for now." Stefan smirked, and now Elena was annoyed.

"You're an ass." She spoke and was about to stand up but Stefan's hand stopped her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. Stay and you can ask me anything you want and I'll answer honestly, this is your only chance." He replied and Elena was debating it in her head. Most of her brain was screaming no, that she should get out of there before it's too late, but she had nothing else to do here. She may as well.

"Fine. But you have to answer honestly, no sarcastic response." She spoke as she got comfortable again.

"No sarcasm, I promise." He replied, and Elena could tell he would keep that promise.

"So where are you from?" She asked. She looked into his eyes as she asked, and she almost drowned in a deep green sea. His eyes were beautiful, no wonderful. Actually she didn't have any words to describe them, none could really sum up how beautiful his eyes were. She wanted to keep getting lost in them.

"Well that's a bit of a loaded question. I'm originally from Mystic Falls, I was raised there until I was 5." Stefan began, but Elena cut him off before he could continue.

"Mystic Falls? Really? That's where I live." She gasped.

"Wow. Small world." Stefan replied, he was a little shocked himself.

"I'm sorry I interrupted you, continue." Elena asked and Stefan nodded.

"Like I said before, born and raised there until I was 5. When my parents died my uncle swept me and my brother away and took us to New York. As a child it was fun, but then when I got older my uncle decided he was too busy with his job to take care of me. So he shipped me off here, and my brother followed along." Stefan explained, and Elena listened to every word he said.

"I'm sorry about your parents." She spoke. Stefan tried to remember any memories he had of his parents, but he couldn't. He was very young when they died, meaning he didn't have enough time to make memories he could cherish. However Damon spoke about them a lot. He spoke about their mother, who could have been an angel. She would brush their hairs and sing to them just before bed, and she would do the same thing in the morning. But whenever Damon spoke about their father, it was a very different story. He was a cold, cruel man who often punished the boys psychically. Stefan even heard Damon say once that he was glad their mother was dead because she could no longer receive abuse from their father, making Damon and Stefan have probably their biggest argument.

"It's okay." Stefan replied. "So, I told you my life story. Tell me about you." Stefan demanded, and just before Elena had the chance to speak the door burst open. Behind the door was Tyler, and Elena quickly jumped up off the bed like it was on fire.

"Wow, it only took you a day to get her in your bed. I must say I'm impressed Stefan." Tyler smirked, making Elena angry.

"Go to hell Tyler." Elena spat then stormed out of Stefan's room, not even saying goodbye. She just couldn't stand to be around Tyler.

The walk back to her room was only 5 minutes, seeing as the boys dorms and the girls dorms were pretty close together. When she walked into her room she didn't know what to expect, was Megan going to scream at her or just ignore her. But instead she jumped up and ran over to Elena, looking like she had been waiting for her.

"Elena I am so sorry! I had no right to shout at you like that, I was just angry and I was being stupid. Please forgive me." Megan almost begged and Elena found herself feeling sorry for her.

"Megan it's fine, it's okay. There's nothing to be forgiven for." Elena assured her and Megan looked psychically relieved.

"I am so glad to hear you say that. I was waiting for you ever since I got back here, which was a pretty long time ago, where have you been?" Megan asked, and now Elena felt more guilty. She didn't know how Megan would react if she found out she was hanging out with Stefan, but at the same time she didn't think she had to feel guilty.

"I was having dinner." Elena replied, hoping Megan would drop it.

"Really? You was eating the mushy food without me?" Megan teased, making Elena sigh. She would have to tell her the truth, she couldn't lie to her.

"Actually, I was having dinner with Stefan." Elena told her, she looked over towards Megan to see her looking hurt. They were 2 current voices in Elena's mind right now. One of them was screaming at her, calling her an absolute bitch, and the other was saying she didn't do anything wrong.

"I'm so stupid, I was sat here waiting for you so I could apologise but you were eating with him. God I'm so stupid, it's not even been a day and you're already in with the populars." Megan shouted, and Elena felt taken aback.

"Megan it's not like that, I was just having dinner with him and he's not so bad." Elena spoke, then felt confused as to why she was defending Stefan.

"Just save it Elena." Megan snapped, and then walked past her out of the door.

Elena tried to stop her but it was too late.

She was gone.


End file.
